Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success

Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success 2012 RehabACTion Fall Conference October 17th, 2012 – Spearfish, SD

Who We Are Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), U.S. Department of Labor: Mission: Provide national leadership on disability employment policy Vision: A world in which people with disabilities have unlimited employment opportunities

What are Soft Skills? Soft skills refer to the traits, work habits, and attitudes that all workers across all occupations must have in order to obtain, maintain, and progress in employment.

What Employers Want Employees with the ability to: • get along with others • work in teams • attend to tasks • work independently • provide excellent customer service • COMMUNICATE!

What Employers Say: “Considerable evidence suggests many employers would be happy just to find job applicants who have the sort of “soft skills that used to be taken for granted” (Wall Street Journal, 9/20/2012) April survey by AARP/SHRM found that “professionalism and work ethic” were top applied skills young workers lacked (WSJ, 9/20/12)

What Employers Say 71 percent said answering a cell phone or texting during the interview. 69 percent said dressing inappropriately. 66 percent said appearing arrogant. 59 percent said chewing gum.

What is Skills to Pay the Bills? • Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success is a curriculum developed by ODEP • Focused on teaching workforce readiness skills to youth, including youth with disabilities • Created for youth development professionals to use when working with youth ages 14 to 24, in both in-school and out-of-school environments • The tool consists of modular, hands-on, engaging activities that focus on six key skill areas

Our Soft Skills Communication Enthusiasm and Attitude Teamwork Networking Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Professionalism

Communication • Many forms including verbal, written, and visual • Important to develop skills for both communicating TO others, and learning how to receive info FROM others • Employers routinely list communication skills as top-rated “must have” skill • Focus areas include information transfer and recognition

Enthusiasm and Attitude • “I can” attitude is a critical component of workplace success • Smiling, punctuality, and desire to learn are some traits of a positive attitude • Positive attitude can mean the difference between getting hired and fired • Focus areas include positive thinking and enthusiasm during interviews

Teamwork • Each individual plays a role in team success • Cooperation, responsibility, communication are key cogs in an effective team • Employers value team players • Focus areas include positive teamwork behavior and understanding roles

Networking • “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” • Essential strategy for career development and exploration • Networking is key to unlocking “hidden job market” • Focus areas include taking initiative and overcoming fear

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking • The ability to use knowledge, facts and data to solve problems • Process is as important as final answer • Employers value ability to develop solution • Focus areas include ethical decision-making and problem solving in a team setting

Professionalism • Professionalism is a key to success, regardless of industry • Employers value those who carry out duties in professional manner • Quality work, honesty and integrity are key facets of the “total package” • Focus areas include molding soft skills together

Development • 12 Month Project Design • Step #1: Seek feedback from the field • Questions to facilitators • Current materials used for soft skills? • Lesson structure (scripted v. unscripted)? • Types of activities most effective? • Lesson design (progressive vs. independent)? • Social networking, email, texting?

Through the lens of Universal Design • Account for learning differences and varied skills, talents and interests • Provide a wide range of learners an opportunity for success • Tips for improving access for all youth • Global strategies • Inclusive teaching strategies • Accommodations

Pilot • 6 sites – in different parts of the country • Different populations of students, and included youth • With and without disabilities • Whose primary language was other than English • Feedback from sites led to adjustments

The result: 30 Lessons • “Just the Facts” – a brief description • Time frame (suggested) • Materials (suggested) • Directions (including sample scripts) • Conclusion (discussion/dialogue) • Journaling activity (with choices) • Extension activity

We also wanted to know: Do you believe youth in your program understand and demonstrate skills in these areas: • Communication: 60% • Enthusiasm/Teamwork: 81% • Teamwork: 58% • Networking: 0% • Problem Solving/Critical Thinking: 50%

Post Pilot: • Do you believe youth in your program understand and demonstrate skills in these areas: • Communication: 100% (40%) • Enthusiasm and Teamwork: 100% (19%) • Teamwork: 100% (42%) • Networking: 100% (100%) • Problem Solving & Critical Thinking: 100% (50%)

Activity Example: The Good, The Bad, The Reasonable • A favorite exercise of students • Students discuss some of the barriers to effective teamwork • Using spaghetti and marshmallows, students have 15 minutes to create tallest freestanding structure • Tallest structure has solid foundation---students discuss importance of foundation for a team

Flipping the Switch! • Discuss the different types of communication we use in different situations and environments • Language and communication vary by context • Verbal AND non-verbal • How we communicate with: • Friends • Family • Professionals

Life is Full of Hard Knocks • The Road to Success is Paved with Failure • Colonel Sanders? • Jim Abbott? • JK Rowling?

Text vs. Email: Does it Really Matter? • YES! It really matters • For both school and work, email skills and ‘etiquette’ are vital • Users translate messages from slang text form to English • Introduces the concept of email etiquette and why it’s so important

Text vs. Email • dEr Employer, I wud lIk 2 apply 4 d dA tym customer srvic positN I saw advRtizd on FB. I hav atachd my resume & hOp U wiL agrE dat my skiLz & intRStz R diRctlE relAtd 2 d positN U hav avail. I wud aPrec8 d opRtunET 2 MEt w U n prsn 2 discuS Y I wud mAk an XLNT employE 4 yor co. ty

Success Story – Brandon Pursley • Skills to Pay the Bills cover artist • Student at Madison County High School • Experience with curriculum gave him the confidence to take his art in a new direction • Currently living and working in Boston

In Their Own Words • “It was an experience going beyond my wildest dreams” - Brandon Pursley (student) • “I can’t think of just one thing that we did because I enjoyed everything” - LaShondra Neely (student) • “The Soft Skills activities are fabulous. They cover the areas that are desperately needed in today’s workforce” - Virginia Dever (facilitator)

Skills to Pay the Bills - Adopters • Washington, DC • Maryland • Virginia • New York • South Carolina • Florida • Wisconsin

Coming Soon! • Skills to Pay the Bills web-based game – A web-based game teaching youth soft skill and career awareness • Skills to Pay the Bills video series - Vivid interpretations of how soft skills should be used to be successful in obtaining a job and continuing to work successfully in the workplace.

Thank You! • Tell us how you use the curriculum atsoftskills@dol.gov • To download in English or Spanish, please go to: www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills

Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success